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Philippines to eventually vaccinate children and teens vs. COVID-19 as well —Galvez
There will come a time when the Philippines will also be vaccinating children against the coronavirus disease, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Thursday night.
At a televised briefing during which President Rodrigo Duterte announced that NCR Plus—
Metro Manila and the provinces of Cavite, Bulacan, Rizal and Laguna—would be placed under general community quarantine with "heightened restrictions" from May 15 to 31, Galvez cited Canada and the US as among the countries that have started vaccinating children 12 years of age and older."Meaning darating ang araw na bibili tayo ng additional vaccine para sa ating lower bracket, from 17 to one year old, comprising 29 million [of the population]," he said.
[In the future we will buy additional vaccines for the lower age brackets, for those 17 years old to one year old, comprising 29 million of the population.]
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Galvez also cited Israel, a success story among countries for its high vaccination rate. "Sinasabi ng Israel, ng mga expert po nila doon, na hindi natin fully mae-eliminate ang disease kung may sizeable amount ng population na hindi pa po nabakunahan. So ibig sabihin po talagang dapat mabakunahan natin lahat ng ating mamamayan para ma-eliminate natin yung disease," he said.
[The experts in Israel said that we will not be able to fully eliminate the disease if there is a sizeable amount of the population remaining unvaccinated. So that means we really have to vaccinate everyone to eliminate the disease.]
Earlier on Thursday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said that the government would need P20 billion to vaccinate 15 billion teenagers against the virus.
The country is now aiming to secure 202 million vaccine doses, consisting of 158 million doses to be purchased by the government and the private sector, and 44 million doses to be received from the global vaccine-sharing facility COVAX.
The Philippines currently has 1,124,724 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 18,821 deaths. — BM, GMA News